


The Fairytale Cafe

by WritLarge



Series: JackRabbit 2017 fics [2]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Angst, Human AU, Human E. Aster Bunnymund, Jackrabbit Week 2017, M/M, Retail AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-20 09:30:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10659756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritLarge/pseuds/WritLarge
Summary: While Aster makes whimsical treats for the Fairytale Cafe, his life is mostly putting one foot in front of the other to get by - until a new employee begins to unravel his routine.





	The Fairytale Cafe

**Author's Note:**

> So I started this one and it spiraled away from me big time. Here’s the first chapter in what will probably be a slow build jackrabbit fic that I’ll finish... eventually.

“Ummm, hello?’ A pale kid stared at where Aster was unloading his delivery onto the counter. He was slim and not a little pretty. Aster had never seen him before. Must be new.

“Morning.” 

“Hi!” Parina chirped at him, skipping out from the kitchen into the quiet cafe, cheerful as always even this early in the morning. She turned to her co-worker. “Aster makes all the pastries and cakes for us.”

Aster strode back to his van to fetch a second load. Pastries and cakes translated to more than croissants and cheesecake. The Fairytale Cafe was tacked onto the side of what was the largest toy store in the city. Parents and children came from all over for finger sandwich lunches, elaborately layered milkshakes, and decorated cakes, booking months in advance for the full service birthday teas. Aster provided the cafe daily with their wide selection of sweets: mulitcoloured macaroons, tiny iced cakes, pastries, doughnuts, biscuits, various candies, and a multitude of chocolate in ever changing flavours and shapes. Such was the volume that they easily kept him afloat as his only customer. 

He began to heft a box into his arms and nearly dropped it, startled by the sudden appearance of the kid at his side.

“Need a hand?” he practically bounced as he asked. Might as well. Aster passed off the box and grabbed another. He couldn’t quite peg the guy’s age - late high school or maybe college? “I’m Jack.”

Aster nodded and hurried them back inside. He wasn’t much for small talk and wanted to get unloaded before he ran into Nick again. They got along well enough, but he’d had a long night and wasn’t in the mood for the man’s bluster.

“Mom!” He heard Parina holler back into the store. “Aster’s here!” 

Oh fantastic. The only thing worse than running into Nick this morning would be getting ambushed by his wife. Artana meant well, she was a lovely woman, but he hated having to answer her well meaning inquiries into his health.

He pretended he hadn’t heard, hurrying back to the van to reach for the last box, Jack on his heels.

“Here,” he all but shoved it into the kid’s arms and fled.

When the cafe was well behind him, Aster took a deep breath and sagged. Christ, he was an ungrateful bastard. It was just, he could only think so much these days. It wasn’t right, the places his mind wandered to if he let it, lingering where it shouldn’t. Best thing he could do was keep moving. Talking never did him any good.

With hours of early morning work finished and results delivered, Aster made for home to change before his run. That was his routine for the most part. Work, run, eat, work, sleep, eat, work, and work some more. Sometimes he’d create, but lately... lately that hadn’t been good either. Letting his creative impulses run free took him as far down as they did up, and once he was down, well.

It was better to stick to the set designs.

Turning into the small lot behind his building, he parked the van and his forehead fell heavy against the wheel for a long moment, the sounds of the city a dull background noise for the dark snarling thoughts in his head. 

Aster pulled in one breath, and then another, and heaved himself out of the van.


End file.
